Alexander von Humboldt on the Future of Spanish America

摘要

The two passages reproduced below were written (in French) in about 1823 by Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the Prussian naturalist and explorer. They are brief reflections on the future growth of population and "public fortune" in the Americas, and in particular in Spanish America. The source is chapter 27 of Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America During the Years 1799-1804 By Alexander von Humboldt and Aime Bonpland (London: Bohn, 1852)-a translation (by Thomasina Ross) of his Relation historique du voyage aux Regions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent. (Paris: Schoell, 1814-25). (This in turn is Part 1 of the 30-volume Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland (Paris, 1814-34).)